Conduplicatio
Repeating a key word from a previous clause at the start of the next, for emphasis.
Conduplicatio picks up an important word from the preceding sentence or clause and repeats it in the next, usually near the beginning, to hold the audience on the idea: 'You have courage. Courage is what this office asks for.'
It resembles anadiplosis, but the constraint is looser. Anadiplosis requires the repeated word to be the last word of one clause and the first of the next; conduplicatio only requires that a salient word recur nearby, which makes it far more usable in ordinary prose.
Its main function is emphasis through amplification: the repeated term becomes the sentence's pivot, and everything after it is read as commentary on that word. Speechwriters use it to install a keyword an audience should leave with.
Common mistake: repeating a weak word. The figure spotlights whatever it repeats, so repeating a filler term draws attention to the least interesting part of the sentence.
“We need discipline. Discipline is not punishment; it is the shape freedom takes.”
Keep reading the glossary
A figure of speech that repeats the last word of one clause at the start of the next, chaining thought forward.
The immediate repetition of a word for emotional emphasis, without any intervening word.
Persistent repetition of a phrase to hammer a point until it cannot be evaded.
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.